Bias from Liking/Loving: Why We Comply With Those We Love - Farnam Street

The Halo Effect occurs when a specific, positive characteristic determines the way a person is viewed by others on other, unrelated traits.

In the case of beauty, we automatically assign favourable yet unrelated traits such as talent, kindness, honesty, and intelligence, to those we find physically attractive. For the most part, this attribution happens unnoticed.

• We like people who resemble us.
• Whether it's appearance, opinions, lifestyle or background, we tend to favour people who in some dimension are most similar to ourselves.
• Similarity bias extends to even such ambiguous traits as interests and background.
• Even if the similarities are superficial, we still may end up liking the other person more than we should.

• We love to be loved and, consequently, we love those that love us.
• Joe Girard, the world's "greatest car salesman", prints "I like you" and his name on every holiday card he sends out.
• Our reaction can be so automatic, that we develop liking even when the attempt to win our favour is an obvious one.

• Repeated exposure can be a powerful tool in establishing liking.
• Take a picture of yourself and create a mirror image in one of the editing tools. Choose which one you like better
• Show the two pictures to a friend and ask her to choose the better one as well. Your friend will prefer the true print, whereas you will think you look better in the mirror image

• Charisma or attraction are not prerequisites for liking - a mere association with someone you like or trust can be enough
• The bias from an association shows itself in many other domains and is especially strong when we associate with the person we like the most - ourselves
• For example, a sports fan and his local team can be highly personal even though the association is often based only on shared location
• Even a trivial association with success may reap benefits and breed confidence

• Someone who is conditioned to like the right people and pick their idols carefully can greatly benefit from these biases.
• The time to call out the defence is when we feel ourselves liking the practitioner more than we should under the circumstances under which we feel manipulated.
• Focus on our feelings rather than the other person's actions.
• Ask yourself how much of what you feel is due to liking versus the actual facts of the situation.